The Zionization of American politics and how it could be terminated ~ by Alan Hart

Alan Hart maps out a way for the de-Zionization of US politics: making politicians accountable to those who elect them and not the big money special interest lobbies through new legislation requiring that all elections be funded from taxation, with the revenue ring-fenced so that it could be used only for elections.

The first headline I thought of for this article was “The Zionization of American democracy and how it could be terminated”, but then I said to myself: “Don’t be silly, Alan, there’s no democracy in the ‘Land of the Free’.”

Leaving aside the fact that any American can now be arrested and detained without due process, there’s no mystery about why.

There’s much more to democracy than voting every few years for the lesser of two or three evils or in America’s case naked political whores (with the exception, among the would-be Republican presidents, of Ron Paul).

A truth is that for democracy to exist, the voters have to be informed enough about critical issues in order to participate in, or at least follow, debate about policy options and choices and call and hold their politicians to account, between elections if necessary. On that basis I know of no country in the world where democracy exists.

“A truth about America is that what passes for democracy there is for sale to the highest lobby bidders, not only (I must emphasize) the Zionist lobby in all of its manifestations.”

In the so-called democratic or what used to be called the “free world” we have the framework for democracy but not the substance. When I joined Britain’s Independent Television News (ITN) as a very young reporter very many years ago, its great editor-in-chief, Geoffrey Cox, gave me the mission statement in one short sentence. “Our job is to help keep democracy alive.” Today I charge the mainstream media with betraying democracy. So I say thanks for the internet, warts and all. (The jury is still out on how far it will be allowed to propel Arab demands for democracy but it might assist Russians to prevent a return to Stalinism under Vladimir Putin and his state Mafia.)

A truth about America is that what passes for democracy there is for sale to the highest lobby bidders, not only (I must emphasize) the Zionist lobby in all of its manifestations.

On 9 December, quoting the latest findings of Public Campaign, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to “sweeping campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics, International Business Times reported this amazing fact.

By employing a plethora of tax-dodging techniques, 30 multi-million dollar American corporations expended more money lobbying Congress than they paid in federal income taxes between 2008 and 2010, ultimately spending approximately 400,000 dollars every day – including weekends – during that three-year period to lobby lawmakers and influence political elections.

But that’s not all. Citizens for Tax Justice, the sister organization to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, reported that 68 of the 265 most consistently profitable Fortune 500 companies did not pay a state corporate income tax during at least one year between 2008 and 2010, while 20 of them paid no taxes at all during that period.

Top political lobbies

Apart from the occupant of the White House and those who advise him, probably nobody really knows which are the most influential lobbies in America, but a list of the top 10, as compiled by the Business Pundit website, made a lot of sense to me. The following are the 10, not necessarily in order of actual influence wielded:

The defence industry or, as named by President Dwight Eisenhower when he warned his fellow Americans to be on their guard and not let it call the policy shots to secure a disproportionate amount of taxpayers’ money, the military-industrial complex. It needs conflict and war in order to be able to quench its thirst for taxpayers’ dollars and sustain its position as the biggest creator of jobs and wealth. (According to a recent report in theEconomist, the US Department of Defence is the biggest employer in the world with 3.2 million on its payroll, ahead of China’s army with 2.3 million.) The heaviest hitters in the defence industry are Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics.

Big oil which is said to spend more on lobbying than any other single special interest group – nearly 150 million dollars in 2010.

The financial lobby which in its various manifestations – banks and other financial institutions – is by far the biggest spender on Capitol Hill, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to campaigns and political parties. (In return, and as noted by Business Pundit, financial institutions are allowed free reign with other people’s money. A senate committee on the financial crisis of the late 2000s found that, “The crisis was not a natural disaster, but the result of high risk, complex financial products; undisclosed conflicts of interest; and the failure of regulators, the credit rating agencies, and the market itself to rein in the excesses of Wall Street.”)

Big pharma – along with the financial lobbies, the pharmaceutical and health products industries have historically been one of the biggest and most powerful lobbies in Washington. Drug companies enjoy more power and influence in America than with any other government in the world.

The agribusiness industry which represents a diverse collection of special interest groups, including large food manufacturers like Kraft and Uniliver, huge agricultural companies like Monsanto, tobacco companies such as Phillip Morris, biofuel producers like UNICA, and logging companies like International Paper and Weyerhauser. These companies spend upwards of 150 million dollars each year, funding campaigns and pushing legislation through Congress or blocking it.

The tech lobby which includes the economic fire power of Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.

The mining industry – this lobby, particularly the coal industry, has had its fingers in American politics for a long time. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was responsible for some of the most dramatic labour uprisings in history. In the last three years, in the face scepticism on the part of environmental advocacy groups, it spent nearly 100 million dollars on seeking to persuade politicians that “clean coal” really will make a major contribution to averting an energy supply crisis.

The NRA (National Rifle Association) – has been one of the most consistently influential political lobbies in American politics for the past 30 years. Its power is less in money and more its ability to mobilize its members. It puts major effort into opposing candidates who advocate gun control. (Al Gore, for example, lost the 2000 election in his own home state of Tennessee primarily because of his pro-gun-control stance.)

The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) – is a non-governmental and special interest group for people aged 50 and over and one of the largest lobbying groups in Washington.

The pro-Israel lobby which is more accurately described as the Zionist lobby. As my regular readers know, I insist that it’s wrong to call this lobby pro-Israel because to do so implies that it speaks for all Israeli Jews and it does not. Headed by AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), which speaks for not more than about 25 per cent of Jewish Americans, it has been called the NRA of foreign policy lobbies because of its ability to make or break politicians, including presidents.

Glimmer of hope?

The statement that best sums up for me the consequences of all this financial fire power on America’s political system was the one made by the man I would like to see as America’s next president, Rocky Anderson. Who is he?

“The constitution has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper. It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party.”Rocky Anderson, US politician and founder of the Justice Party

On Monday 19 December, at a news conference in Washington DC, he announced the creation of a new third party, the Justice Party, and his intention to run for the presidency under its banner.
Just turned 60, Rocky Anderson, a former two-term mayor of Utah’s Salt Lake City, has an impressive record of service to what could be called the public good on many fronts. For reasons of space I have to ask readers who want to know more about him to take a look at his Wikipedia entry.

On 11 August last year he denounced the Democratic Party and resigned his membership of it. In his letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he said:

Until the Democratic Party shows some spine and draws a line in the sand – that an end to the tax breaks for the wealthy needs to be part of any debt/budget bill – please take my name off your list… I’m done with the Democratic Party. As I said on Amy Goodman’s show a couple years ago, I’ve put my proud Democrat coffee mug in storage. I think now I’ll just throw it in the garbage and have done with it… The constitution has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper. It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party.

I was inspired by Amy Goodman’s interview with Anderson for Open Democracy very shortly after his announcement of the formation of the Justice Party.

The great thing about television is that it gives viewers the opportunity not only to listen to what speakers are saying but also to study their body language as they are speaking and listening to the questions. In other words, television gives viewers the opportunity to ask and answer an important question: do I believe this guy or gal? With Tony Blair, for example, my answer was always “No”. And I regret to say it has become “No” when I listen to President Barack Obama and watch his body language. Anderson’s body language told me he is a man I can believe and that makes what he had to say more than important – even though he has no chance of becoming president in 2013. (After that…?)

Here is what he said in answer to one of Goodman’s questions.

We launched the Justice Party because the entire system is so corrupt. It’s so diseased. We know that the public interest is not being served by anyone in the system right now, particularly the two dominant parties who have sustained this corrupt system and who are sustained by it… Obama received more money from Wall Street than any presidential candidate ever. And they got a great return on their investment… We need people in public office who are pledged not to just represent the people’s interest in the same system, but to change the system and get the corrupting influence of corporate and other concentrated wealth out of our electoral system and out of our system of governance.

“A real clean-up would require legislation giving effect to the proposition that all elections will be funded by only one source: public money raised from taxation, with the revenue ring-fenced so that it could be used only for elections.”

Common sense says that the only way to end the financial corruption of American politics is by the people, the voters, demanding that it be ended.

A real clean-up would require legislation giving effect to the proposition that all elections will be funded by only one source: public money raised from taxation, with the revenue ring-fenced so that it could be used only for elections. There are about 100 million voters in America and 10 dollars added each year to their tax bill would provide enough money for all election funding. Ten dollars a year is surely a very small price for each voter to pay for something approaching real democracy.

Given that Congress’s approval rating is closer to 10 per cent than 20 per cent according to the latest polls, organizing a rolling and rising tide of people power to demand the necessary constitutional amendment or amendments to get the corrupting influence of lobby funding out of the electoral system ought not to be a mission impossible.

In other words, if enough American voters were aware of how corrupt their political system actually is, and if then they cared enough, they could cause the corruption to be terminated. What a demonstration of real democracy in action that would be!

If we had a wish list for 2012 as Palestinians and friends of Palestine, one of the top items ought to be our hope that we can translate the dramatic shift in recent years in world public opinion into political action against Israeli policies on the ground… We know why this has not yet materialized: the political, intellectual and cultural elites of the West cower (crouch or cringe in fear) whenever they even contemplate acting according to their own consciences as well as the wishes of their societies. This last year was particularly illuminating for me in that respect. I encountered that timidity at every station in the many trips I took for the cause I believe in. And these personal experiences were accentuated by the more general examples of how governments and institutions caved in under intimidation from Israel and pro-Zionist Jewish organizations.

In America Zionist intimidation which causes the “caving in” manifests itself in two ways.

One is funding for election campaigns and the threat, actually the promise, not only to deny funding to candidates who won’t commit to toeing Zionism’s line but to fund their opponents.

The other is delivery of Zionist-lobby-organized Jewish votes in close election races. (In a few states that are home to large Jewish populations – New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida – the Jewish vote can be decisive.)

Once upon a time, when most Jewish Americans voted for Democratic Party candidates, Republicans running for office did not bother to grovel for Jewish campaign funds and votes. An indicator of how times are changing is that in the current race for the White House, and with the exception of Ron Paul, Republican candidates are grovelling for Jewish campaign funds and votes as much if not more than Obama. In that context it can be said that the Zionization of American politics has been completed.

Can it ever be ended? Yes if enough Americans insist that their politicians be accountable to those who elect them and not the big money special interest lobbies.

At the time of writing the signs are that Obama will get a second term by default, this because no Republican challenger is credible to enough Americans. If that is the outcome of November’s election, probably a majority of Americans will be very far from happy with the way their electoral system operates; and that discontent might just be enough to cause them to demand an end to the corruption of the lobby system.

My hope for 2013 and beyond is that they will. (Could it be that Rocky Anderson’s time will come?)

What is hidden even more

These lists, do not display the avoidable mortality. A clear and statistical factual evidence, about the number of deaths due to indecent ruling by occupation forces. For even an occupier has obligations under International Laws, Geneva Convention and the Hague regulations, which it is neglecting. These circumstances, together with deliberate policies of the occupier to neglect and even deny every basic human right, severes avoidable mortality which is totally silenced by media or reporting organisations. While in the Holocaust, 1 on 6 Jewish people directly died of deliberate neglect, so if we believe the facts over 1 million due to avoidable mortality, neither should these same circumstances be ignores which are ongoing in Palestine. For this report displays a avoidable morality of at least 0,5 million Palestinians.

How many more dead corpses of Palestinians does the international community need to see in order to act? How many more cruelties and violations of Human Rights, Regulations and International Law will be needed to intervene so this ongoing warcrime is being stopped once and for all?

The Rockets from Gaza Excuse

The Facts
So you only read melodramatic stories about home made unguided firecrackers flying from Gaza, zionism magnifying the flares untill the average ignorant thinks we’re talking 12 meter high nuclear head detonation (chemical nuclear or toxic) loaded warhead carrrying long range missiles.

While in fact, the “TENS OF THOUSANDS ROCKETS” which are allegedly “launched” by Gaza are non detonating, non guided and seldom hit any target at all regarding the alleged number of “rockets” we can easily state it is more a matter of high unlikely a Gaza rocket hits anything at all even more unlikely the chances it will kill.

So let’s behold, the tens of thousands rockets which allegedly were launched: They killed 21 people if internationals counted as well, including Palestinians 29. 29 death from 10′s of thousands of rockets in 10 years, and 29 too many too.

To retaliate these deaths Israel commits the following attacks (kindly notice, all related posts are covered by media, reports and international organisations:

So you did read in worldwide newspapers and media about a home made flare or “flying” from Gaza towards the occupied desert?

But you never read about the DAILY attacks by army, airforce, navy, police, intelligence, undercover agents AND settlers which happen on land from the air and from and on the sea in Gaza as well as in the West Bank? The tens of thousands rockets from Gaza killed as said 29 people inside occupied territories in 10 years.

But #US is keeping the facts from the people, serving Israel and silencing while The power of lies, deceptions and disinformation as Americans pay the price of collective stupidity which is funneled up by their gov’t. Silencing the facts the giv’t knows too well:The Facts US is aware of and hiding for you

Deaths at Checkpoints
You only hear of death or possible death at a checkpoint, when a pregnant American reporter get’s forced 3 times after eachother to go through the X-Ray at a checkpoint.
Only than, media makes a little noise about possible (!) danger for the foetus. 18.000 women a year develop complications due to this policies and 35 children have died since start of monitoring of the effects of obstruction or entrance to medical aid

(This list only displays the direct reported effects of death by policies or denial to healthcare, while te real avoidable mortality rate due to deliberate deprivation of basic needs is much higher.)

For a comparision: During the Holocaust 1 in 6 Jewish people died due to deliberate deprivation of Nazi policies, causing death of 1 million Jewish people. A warcrime. Remembered every year. And this is justified to remember people which are slain in the awful Nazi war

Aside from the number of deaths in Palestine, it is widely silenced that Israel not only in Palestine cause many deaths, but also in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and beyond.

Geneva Convention

Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly establish that Israel, as the occupying power, not only has a duty toensure medical supplies reach hospitals in the OPT, but to ensure and maintain the services of the hospitals too. As High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, other states not only have a moral duty but also a legal obligation to ensure Israel abides by its commitments to the protected population of the OPT.

UN Convention of the Rights of the Child

As a States Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Israel is obliged under Article 24 of the treaty to recognise the right of every child under its effective jurisdiction “to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services”.

That is is deliberate targeted to Palestinians may be proven by the fact that Israel donates streetlights to African countries to prevent traffic deaths, but demolishes ‘Imneizils (by Spain funded) solar systems which also provide the hospital, schools and the whole village of basic electricity needs:If Israel would be able to “turn off” the sun above #Palestine, It would” ~ in pictures

But Israel has become exactly as those it feared and hated once themselves. Than it accused beginning of December 2011 Ireland for being the most hostile country in the EU, because it compared Israeli soldiers to Nazis. You make the comparision. Judge for yourself:HaShoah versus Al Nakba – in pictures

As you can read in the previous post these weapons not only kill instantly but also have long term risk effects for health, can cause diseases and/or death in the end. (even in Egypt and Israel itsaelf)

Only(!) during the war 2008-2009, Gaza police have put the weight of weapons dropped on the Strip by Israel during the war two years ago at over 3000 tons.

Tahseen Saad, head of the police force’s explosives engineering unit, indicated that a lot of the weapons used were illegal under international law. Occupation forces used different types of bombs with the most significant ones weighing between 150 – 500 Kg. Most controversial weapons were/are used including white phosphorous bombs which are illegal to use in populated areas.

Furtheron Israel used an assortment of missiles, such as anti-tank guided missiles, against civilians and their vehicles. Israeli army used bombs that dispersed red smoke made up of explosives and tungsten. When the bomb is dropped it sprayed a liquid which creates fog and in less than a second it disappears and the bomb explodes.

The effect of the weapons is not limited to killing. Weapons containing materials that are forbidden under international accords, such as phosphorous, tungsten and uranium, spread cancer in the targeted population, destroy nature and cause terrible burns and amputations. Some of the consequences, like foetal abnormalities, are not immediately apparent.

So next time you see Israel telling, they had another rocket “attack” remember it has the most advanced Iron Dome system which indeed intercepts missiles if there are any REAL ones.

Remember also. Gaza… does have no dome at all. No iron dome, and no dome of Human Rights. It is indiscriminately bombed by F16′s, surveilled and attacked by drones, shelled by tanks, shelled & bombed by navy ships, from coast or at sea, and invasions on the land occur almost daily.
All the above is just a fraction of aggression regarding to the presumptions about the so called waves of rockets from Gaza and to put this into a more realistic perspective.

This is by no means a complete overview and this list can be made exhausting if we go name all passive and direct aggression, oppression in any way imaginable which Israel or it’s settlers impose on Palestinians.

The Right to Self-Defense of Palestine

For who does still not understand the (need or concept of) resistance of Palestine recommended read:The Eagle of Palestine

The average civilian in Palestine has no more of self defense than a stone he or she can throw.
24 Years ago Palestinians massively engaged in civil disobedience and we’re heavily suppressed, which happens even today. Even last friday a unarmed civilian protester Mustafa Tamimi was murdered by the Israeli army. There is still not even evidence he even had a stone.

The First Intifada | انتفاضة – in pictures
24 Years later Palestinians living under occupation for 64 years now, still only have a stone, and some flares while the daily disproportional violence and aggression of the occupier, the collective punishment and the daily oppression and exiling is influencing 11 Million Lives in Palestine but most still outside, unable to return to their home.

While International Law – Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

UDHR Art 13(1)
“Everyone has the right 2 freedom of movement & residence within the borders of each state”

UDHR Art 13(2)
” Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country”

UDHR 17:(2)
“No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.”

UDHR 20(1)
“Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”

UDHR Art 5:
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

UDHR Art 3:
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person

UDHR 15:1
“Everyone has the right to a nationality”

All of the Human Rights above, are not valid in Palestine. Just because Israel unilateral decided Palestinians have no rights at all, of no kind at all. Even when this means they pretend to be a Jewish state, violating not even international law, regulations, but also every divine law.

Something to ponder about…
For who not sees or who’s eyes are still closes. IOA has become exactly and even worse than those, they feared and hated once themselves. Using the same atrocities, policies to oppress, ethnically cleanse and eradicate human beings. Creating a new Shoah (Holocaust) for the Palestinians in 1948 with Al Nakba, and sustaining it by hasbara and the world’s ignorance or at least those not using their own mind to reconsider the realistic facts. So Hasbara in 16 words explained:

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it…”
~ Joseph Goebbels